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Having problems with your Dell XPS™ 600 PC Desktop ?

Got a new hdd 250gb sata the pc can't find it

\015 I have XPS 600, original system was win. XP media center, I just decided to format hdd and get windows xp\015\012sp3. After trying to install new system I noticed that no hdd was\015\012recognized by windows installation cd. After searching in Google I have\015\012managed to sort this out and get right drivers for my motherboard and installed XP.\015\012After having hope that everything is fine, I just noticed that\015\012windows is not booting. It start to boot, I can see XP booting screen,\015\012but then it's restarting back and on and on again.\015\012My friend told me that it might be BIOS settings problem and advised to\015\012set ATA option in it... but there is no such option in XPS 600 BIOS, because there are old machines.\015\012\015\012Can someone help me please because I'm stuck.\015\012\015\012I can install windows vista\015\012but I don't know is that gonna help? and I prefer my old XP Pro. Can\015\012any body please help I am having the same problem. You can contact me\015\012on YouTube by searching aquino80. Thanks\015

Answers :

I have the exact same system you have and have the same problem. Dell quit supporting that system as far as updates to drivers and BIOS updates before SATA drives became readily available.

The short answer is there is no way to boot to a SATA drive on that system that I have been able to discover. The BIOS does not recognize it as a bootable device.

What you can do is boot to a regular IDE (PATA) drive, install the driver for the SATA drive and Windows will recognize it. Place your Page file on the new drive and all your applications and data on the new drive.

It is not ideal, but I have managed to move the majority of files to the new drive and it runs quite well. You have to be diligent about installing new software to the new drive instead of the IDE drive.

There is a program you can buy for about $15 that will help you move applications that insist on installing to the boot drive called App Mover. I tried the free trial and it works quite well.

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